The聽Departments of Allied Health Sciences聽(DAHS) Office of Research and Scholarship 补苍诲听Neurology聽have awarded Nicole Short, an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, with its 2020-2021 Sleep Innovative Research (SIRG) grant. The SIRG program launched in 2018 thanks to the generosity of the Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation; the program leads an effort to build an internationally recognized program of research in sleep science at 大象传媒-Chapel Hill. The competitive grant process funds 大象传媒-Chapel Hill investigators up to $10,000 for their sleep-related project.
John Grose, the associate chair of the Office of Research and Scholarship in the DAHS, said the sleep grants lay the groundwork for a major, comprehensive focus on sleep science at the University.
鈥淭hese pilot grants are essential to enable promising investigators to launch a research endeavor that we hope will lead to major extramural funding,鈥� Grose said.
Short鈥檚 project, titled “Mechanisms underlying sleep and substance use risk among women trauma survivors: A multimodal intensive longitudinal pilot study,鈥� aims to research the intersection of poor sleep and its contributions to negative outcomes following trauma exposure, particularly among women. Specifically, Short will recruit women following sexual assault in order to assess their sleep, potential for substance use, and other聽physiologic effects.
Short, whose聽interest in the study of sleep began as an undergraduate聽student at the University of California, Berkeley, said her work as a research assistant at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System highlighted a link among sleep,聽trauma,聽补苍诲听substance use.
鈥淚t鈥檚聽really聽exciting to potentially be able to figure out which problem is driving the other,鈥� Short said.聽鈥淲e sleep every聽single day, but we don鈥檛 often think about it.”
Short said the results of her聽research could provide insight and data in developing a sleep intervention in order to mitigate longer-term substance use issues. Short said studying those who have experienced sexual assault will be an important population to聽research because many of them seek emergency care, which is a valuable opportunity to provide secondary prevention.
“They鈥檙e at much higher risk for PTSD,鈥� Short said.聽鈥淚t鈥檚 a very invasive trauma. It鈥檚 interpersonal, and it can involve people you know and may trust or want to trust, which makes it harder to recover from.鈥�
The grant funding will help Short collect and better quantify pilot data gathered from wearable technology.
The Department of Anesthesiology houses the聽Institute for Trauma Recovery, where Short is an investigator.
The DAHS launched a quarterly series of sleep forums in 2018 with sessions featuring sleep labs and tools available to researchers on campus.聽Short received her PhD from Florida State University in 2019. John Grose, PhD, is faculty in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences and specializes in psychoacoustics in the Department of Otolaryngology.